The giant panda is a large, distinctive black-and-white bear that lives in the mountain forests of central China. Giant pandas are instantly recognizable by their bold coloring: white faces with black patches around their eyes, black ears, black legs, and a black band across their shoulders. They look almost like they're wearing a fuzzy costume.

Unlike most bears, which eat fish, insects, or meat, giant pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo. An adult panda might munch through 26 to 84 pounds of bamboo shoots and leaves every single day. Since bamboo doesn't provide much energy, pandas spend 12 to 16 hours a day eating. They have special bone-like extensions on their wrists that work like thumbs, helping them grip bamboo stalks while they strip off the leaves.

Giant pandas were once critically endangered, with fewer than 1,000 left in the wild by the 1980s. Conservation efforts in China have helped their numbers recover to around 1,800 wild pandas today. Because they're so rare and beloved worldwide, giant pandas have become a symbol of wildlife conservation. China sometimes loans giant pandas to zoos in other countries as a gesture of friendship and cooperation.

The “giant” in their name distinguishes them from red pandas, which are much smaller, reddish-brown animals that also eat bamboo but belong to a completely different animal family.